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1 0 P E R S P E C T I V E | J A N U A R Y / F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 6 N E W S 25th Annual Art Directors Guild Awards for Lifetime Achievement Illustrator and Matte Artists Craft Winner: Tom Southwell B Y D AV I D M O R O N G , E D I T O R Tom Southwell is a veteran artist and designer whose six-decade career in film and television spans more than 150 productions. Born in New Rochelle, New York—home to legendary Illustrators Norman Rockwell and J.C. Leyendecker—Southwell showed an early talent for drawing that would shape his lifelong creative path. After earning a degree in communication design from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, he relocated to Hollywood, beginning his career at PSI, a rental house where he gained foundational knowledge of lighting and grip equipment. He soon moved onto drawing set elements and painting small sets for commercial and still-photo productions, while also running a graphic design studio at General Service Studios. A pivotal opportunity came when Paramount Pictures hired him to work in the property A D G L I F E T I M E A C H I E V E M E N T AWA R D T O M S O U T H W E L L department on The Godfather Part II, initiating a long association with Production Designer Dean Tavoularis and his brother Alex. This led to further work on series and features, including Happy Days, Won Ton Ton and Meteor, where he designed a space mural featured in one of Sean Connery's scenes. A. TOM SOUTHWELL B. THE MUPPET MOVIE (1979) ILLUSTRATION. C. DISTURBIA (2007) STORYBOARDS A B C